taint
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
taints,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tainted,
past participle, past
-
tainting
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
taints,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tainted,
past participle, past
-
tainting
present participle
noun
verb
-
to affect or be affected by pollution or contamination
oil has tainted the water
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to tarnish (someone's reputation, etc)
noun
-
a defect or flaw
a taint on someone's reputation
-
a trace of contamination or infection
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
taintsimple
-
taintssimple
-
have taintedperfect
-
has taintedperfect
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am taintingprogressive
-
are taintingprogressive
-
is taintingprogressive
-
have been taintingperfect progressive
-
has been taintingperfect progressive
Past
-
taintedsimple
-
had taintedperfect
-
was taintingprogressive
-
were taintingprogressive
-
had been taintingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of taint1
First recorded in 1325–75; conflation of Middle English taynt, shortened variant of attaint “struck, attainted,” past participle of attainten “to convict” ( see attaint), late Middle English taynt “hue, tint” ( see tint), from Anglo-French teint or directly from Latin tinctus, equivalent to ting(ere) “to dye, color“ ( see tinge) + -tus suffix of verb action); and teinte, from Late Latin tincta “inked stroke,” noun use of feminine of past participle of tingere
Origin of taint2
First recorded in 1955–60; casual pronunciation of it ain’t (the one or the other), i.e., it is the area in between
Explanation
Taint means to contaminate. If you don’t want to taint your drinking water, don’t use an old gas can as a water pitcher. Tainting something makes it impure. To taint something is to spoil or corrupt it, whether it’s water, food, or even a person’s soul. These days, taint gets in the news if a company accidentally taints meat with salmonella bacteria, for example. If you add something poisonous to a substance, you taint it. A silly person might say when you taint something, t’aint right.
Vocabulary lists containing taint
Metaphors from Top AP English Exam Novels
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Monster
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "T"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The message that Washington will no longer accept business-as-usual was a sharp warning for Sheinbaum, a long-time academic and U.S.-educated scientist who, by all accounts, is free from the taint of corruption.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2026
Meghan had divorced a talent manager in 2014, a taint on her résumé from The Firm’s perspective.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
He also voiced concern that the draft lottery debate could "negatively taint the whole effort".
From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2025
And it’s all too easy to accidentally taint a drop of blood at home.
From Slate ● May 28, 2025
His sword helped taint the throne you sit on, Ned thought, hut he did not permit the words to pass his lips.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
A 2017 study found that human-caused noise, largely from roads, taints nearly two-thirds of America’s protected areas.
From Slate ● May 25, 2024
“Where is the line between an ethical lapse or a political misjudgment and something that kind of taints this office?” he asked.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 19, 2024
That authentic silhouette would erase the creep of modernization that taints many rental costumes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2023
Anything that taints their preconceived notion of how they should be.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2023
As if having a sofa in a house on the ground taints its history in a house up in the sky.
From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson
She said he had lost 11 of her 18 hectares in a wildfire, and didn't want to spend any money on harvesting surviving vines if the wine would be tainted.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
SINGAPORE—Myanmar’s tainted pro-democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, met with a Red Cross official on Monday, offering evidence that the former leader is alive despite concerns from her supporters about her health.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Summer, a season of good eats and fresh produce, has been tainted by a rampant parasitic outbreak that’s made us all scared to indulge in a generous plate of Caesar salad.
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026
Attorneys for the owners of the landfill, which stopped accepting trash last year, claimed this spring in the litigation that the lawsuits may be tainted by fraud.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
“Don’t you see? We re all tainted by it. As long as we keep quiet and let it go on, were as bad as they are. It eats at them; it eats at us.”
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
Overturning Balogun’s red card has rankled even some American soccer fans, who see the intervention as tainting a U.S. run that had been gathering momentum.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
And so if “a court always carries out those waivers—no matter the kind or degree of error tainting a sentence—the judicial system’s integrity may come into question.”
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
While none of the investigations target the president, Brazilians' weariness with corruption "ends up tainting those in power," Edinho Silva, head of the Workers' Party, lamented.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
The audio, published by ABC 7, sparked anger and frustration from the brothers’ relatives and their attorney, who accused the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of leaking the audio and tainting Lyle’s hearing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2025
My rage spills out of me, tainting every move.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
